Three years after her appointment, the woman Rama described as a “full guarantee” for Albanian intelligence has been suspended from duty and placed under house arrest as part of an SPAK investigation linked to a case involving the manipulation of tenders issued by the National Agency of Information Society.
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The director of the State Intelligence Service, Vlora Hyseni, was suspended from duty and placed under house arrest by a decision of the Special Court, following a request from the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Corruption and Organized Crime.
In an official statement on Tuesday, SPAK announced that the measures against Hyseni had been taken as part of criminal proceeding no. 20/1 of 2025.
According to the Special Prosecutor’s Office, the Special Court of First Instance against Corruption and Organized Crime, in decision no. 67 dated September 21, 2026, imposed on Hyseni the measures of house arrest and suspension from the exercise of a public duty or service.
Hyseni is under investigation for the criminal offenses provided for under Articles 320/2 and 295/a/1 of the Criminal Code, relating respectively to aiding the perpetrator of a crime and disclosing a state or service secret.
According to a source familiar with the case, the security measures against the SHISH director are linked to the investigation being conducted by the Special Prosecutor’s Office into Ergys Agasi, a former official of the Ministry of Environment accused of creating a structured criminal group with the aim of manipulating tenders issued by the National Agency of Information Society, AKSHI.
In the same proceeding, SPAK announced that the Special Court had authorized a search of the home and a personal search of former State Police director Ilir Proda, as well as a complex of villas in the Shkozet area of Durrës.
Hyseni has headed SHISH since April 2023, when she was appointed, amid controversy, by Prime Minister Edi Rama because of her Kosovo citizenship and an unclear dismissal from the position of deputy head of Kosovo’s intelligence service.
Career at KIA
Vlora Hyseni was born in Kosovo in 1984. She holds Kosovo and Albanian citizenship, graduated in law and completed a master’s degree in international relations.
According to SHISH’s official biography, she began her professional career in 2008 in Pristina, at an American international legal organization working to promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law. In 2010, she joined KIA, where she built most of her career in intelligence.
Among other positions, Hyseni served as director of external relations and, in February 2019, was appointed deputy director of the agency. After director Kreshnik Gashi left in December 2020, she headed KIA for around four months, until Petrit Ajeti was appointed in April 2021.
Two months later, her career in Kosovo came to an abrupt end.
On June 30, 2021, President Vjosa Osmani and Prime Minister Albin Kurti signed Hyseni’s dismissal from the post of deputy director.
The public decision did not give a specific reason for her removal.
It required Hyseni to hand over the materials she had administered and to safeguard the information obtained during her time in office, regardless of how she had gained access to it. The statement also recalled that “the disclosure or failure to safeguard classified information” constituted a criminal offense under Kosovo’s legislation.
But the wording did not say that Hyseni had been dismissed for such a violation, and Kosovo’s authorities did not make any other reason for the decision public. This ambiguity would follow her to Albania as well.
From Pristina to Rama’s office
Just a few months after leaving KIA, Hyseni appeared in Tirana as a security adviser to Prime Minister Edi Rama.
She remained out of the public eye for around a year and a half, but on March 17, 2023, Rama announced that he had proposed her to President Bajram Begaj to head SHISH. The prime minister accompanied the proposal with a strong statement of personal support.
“Today I presented the President of the Republic with the proposal to appoint Ms. Vlora Hyseni as director of the State Intelligence Service,” Rama wrote, praising her “outstanding preparation,” experience and the respect that, according to him, Hyseni enjoyed within the international intelligence community. He described these qualities as “a full guarantee” for the further reform of Albania’s intelligence service.
But the proposal immediately raised questions about her past in Kosovo.
Democratic Party MP Gazment Bardhi asked the President, before issuing the decree, to obtain full information from Kosovo’s institutions about the reasons for her dismissal.
Bardhi referred to media reports according to which her removal might have been linked to suspicions of disclosing or failing to safeguard classified information. He described the reports as “concerning” and argued that SHISH should not be an institution “under Edi Rama’s personal control.”
On March 29, 2023, Rama was publicly asked whether President Begaj was hesitating to appoint Hyseni and whether, after contacts with Prime Minister Albin Kurti, he had obtained information about the reasons for her dismissal. Rama did not give a direct answer, dismissing the questions as “the gossip of our political and media village.”
Five days later, on April 3, 2023, President Begaj appointed Hyseni as head of SHISH. According to the Presidency, she became the 11th head of the State Intelligence Service.
Vlora Hyseni’s relationship with Edi Rama
Vlora Hyseni was just 38 or 39 years old when she took over the State Intelligence Service, a relatively young age that made her the youngest head in SHISH’s history.
Since her appointment, Hyseni has frequently appeared alongside Rama in official delegations abroad, particularly on visits with a strong security and foreign policy component.
Just three months after taking office, in July 2023, Hyseni was part of the delegation led by Rama to the NATO Summit in Vilnius. The Ministry of Defense listed her alongside Defense Minister Niko Peleshi and Foreign Minister Olta Xhaçka, and she also attended the meeting Rama held with American senators about the situation in northern Kosovo.
Her presence at international activities has not been limited to the Prime Minister’s Office. SHISH records a series of Hyseni’s visits to Washington and Brussels, where she met with senior officials from U.S. intelligence, the CIA and NATO. In 2025, Hyseni also took over the leadership of NATO’s Civilian Intelligence Committee, CIC, a position that put her in direct contact with the heads of intelligence services in allied countries.
Hyseni has also appeared in official delegations with a broader political and economic profile. In April 2026, she was present in Abu Dhabi at the Prime Minister’s meeting with Peng Xiao, head of the technology group G42, at a time when a company linked to the group was involved in Albania’s “Smart City” project. Representatives of the Ministry of the Interior also attended the meeting.
The inclusion of the SHISH director in high-level delegations is not unusual in itself, particularly at NATO or on visits where security, terrorism or cooperation between intelligence services are discussed. But the frequency with which Hyseni appears in delegations led by Rama makes their institutional relationship notably close. /reporter.al/
